Quickly Sold Out

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

A smooth sealed bearing roller coaster of sounds through vast arrays of genres. Never resting for a second, when the tape stops you will want to flip press play again. Deadbeat's Big Forever is sweetness in all forms, from glittered out beat driven drum rolls, analytical samples, streets songs, and mutated surf pop coolness. Big Forever drives sound with any excursion you take.

Seven tracks too quick to end. The transitions from song to song by Deadbeat, are so very well crafted. Snake like movements across concrete paths. For a moment, everything has slowed down and you can hear Big Forever go through it's motions, before slipping into the grass and disappearing with rapid speed. Beautiful undulations of sonic strength and style, almost suspended in time, then all to quickly gone. Unlike watching the snake go from concrete to grass analogy, fortunately we can keep playing Big Forever again and again.

Released by Already Dead Tapes and Records in an edition of one hundred. Good for hot summer nights, having the ability to keep your ears circling the ceremonial fire and take your thoughts away. Deadbeat has plenty of shows coming up in the Chicago area or you can just get a tape from the label!

The title of this cassette threw me off a little bit. I was expecting to be hit with a more ruckus and punk like barrage, being this an Already Dead Tapes and Records release. And the artist's name, Dead Man's Lifestyle would seem more reckless and on the edge. Instead, beautifully surprising and elegantly sublime, this cassette is a fire burned down to reddish-orange embers with enough creativeness to capture your complete attention.

Spanning in at about a half hour of reflective tracks, From Below rides the white line of quicksand sand and liberation. The tracks reverberate with ethereal hypnotic guitar. The entire tape sizzles and the edges seem frayed. Sparkling notes played over droning backgrounds. Sometimes there is a feeling of foreboding, but more often a climate of spiritual ascent. As the ominous sounds close in on your space, there is always a willow wisp to show you the way through.

The three tracks starting off the tape, Haint 1, 2 and 3 are really a magical journey. Grabbing the recesses of your mind while simultaneously creating a sonic world for your waking thoughts to hear. The second half of this tape lures your thoughts into the guitar solo of the specter. Beckoning you across with both lulling and fascinating strings always tinted with the unknown.

Out on Already Dead Tapes and Records from Chicago, From Below was created in a run of fifty. A superb composition that plays perfectly for so many occasions. This one is almost gone with three left from the label as i write this. Grab a copy while there are still some to get!

Orchestral music being pulled through time, stretched and contorted. Beautiful symphony droning with the confluence of thousands of compositions. Monte Burrows feels completely organic and absolutely natural.

Ikki Ni consist of two tracks, way to short for how magical this sounds. There is a comfort in listening to this delightful piece. Like having dreams, sometimes the moments within the dream we do not understand, but we grow to cherish them as aspects of ourselves. Ikki Ni is similar to this. Sophisticated breathing of aural wonder, thinning into heavy doorways that open with creaking foreboding. Monte Burrow accomplishes a splendid feat by using the warm familiarity of deeply resonating strings with environmental on the edge of intimacy. Elegantly composed and dressed for relaxation accompanied by peaceful thoughts.

Wounded Knife released this in early March of this year. Because Lost In A Sea Of Sound is a one person en devour, this was not written soon enough before all cassettes have sold out. If you want this in cassette format, you will need to do some internet looking. Good news for Wounded Knife fans (this is a quickly growing number of people), they have a very new batch of four tapes out ready for purchase. I am sure these will be sold out soon as well. Monte Burrows is ready to be heard digitally, any time you are ready!

Braeyden Jae opens up his consciousness again and transcribes over forty minutes of his signature done on this cassette titled Perpetual Child. The richness of generations decomposing on brittle 16mm film can be heard as new energy being projected burns through the hairline cracks of the acetate. Crumbling away into white thought or elevated meditation.

Perpetual Child has a very melodic natural dance within it's scenic offerings. Like trees moving in a comfortable silent breeze. It is difficult to describe the feeling of this composition from Braeyden Jae. I really think Perpetual Child has the ability to mirror many of our internal feelings. Maybe not anger or extreme sadness, but more melancholy or peaceful content. All this from just side one titled "Too Much"! The second side creates a more introspective environment. The sounds take your thoughts by the hand and lead in the direction of mystifying wonder. Like the rumbling drone of a jet plane turbine as heard while looking through a small window onto the world below. Imagining life at the surface and how the world was formed.

This is out from the Warsaw, Poland label Wounded Knife. Outstanding Braeyden Jae from a label that has plenty to say. This tape has sold out from the label like all of their releases. Keep a look out for Perpetual Child at the distros or discogs. Wounded Knife has new batch just out with four new cassettes all available! Check out these releases here before they are gone as well.

This cassette is a big railroad spike starting a long track for Big Sleep Records. This is a physical release of Twin Freaxx Record's Now That's What Your Parents Call Drone Volume II. This was originally released in October of 2014 and now on cassette in February 2016. There is a Now That's What Your Parents Call Drone Volume I that was released digitally by Twin Freaxx Records in July of 2012. Not sure if Volume I ever made it to physical form. Volume II is a gigantic piece of work clocking in at an hour and forty minutes or so, and sixteen various artists.

Now that the introductions are complete.... This is a pretty darn crafty release. All of the artists have taken hit songs from past musicians and reworked them into a new fuzzed out wold out ambient origin. Sometimes you can here remnants of the original versions like Via Vergrandis retake on Amy Grant's Baby Baby. Other times the resemblance is a complete mystery like Bishonen Knife's version of Sail On by the Commodores. Neil Jendon slightly tweaks I'm Not in Love by 10cc arriving at a truly droned out cover, but landing in the same court. The Kendal Mintcake rebuild of Todd Rundgren's Can We Still Be Friends and ends up with a blissed out somewhat recognizable reconstruction. Lesley Gore's You Don't Own Me is reconstructed by CPI and has been smoothed out into the vastness, but still retains a slight feel from the original.

The real beauty of Now That's What Your Parents Call Drone Volume II is in how different artists take hold of these songs making them close or far from the original. With so many artists, all of the flavors are different for your idea of what drone is. Also how each track is interpreted will vary with every listener, depending on how well the first versions are known by them. There will be a nostalgic feel at times for some, while for others this will be entirely new. Like Anaphylaxis version of Stay Awhile by the Bells, not so sure many people have ever even heard the original Bells version, and if they have, would they be listening to this various artist drone tape now?

The variation within this release is very pleasing and combined with the enormity of the entire cassette, this can hang out for long stints in the deck without ever seeming to repeat. Out on Big Sleep Records in physical form in an edition of fifty. Also found a nice write up on this from Tabs Out.

The Kendal Mintcake is so far out in space..... All​-​Star Erotic Hypnosis pretty much throws sound out of the speakers in some rhythmic chaotic pattern. Yes that is an oxymoron and this is a good description of where these sounds will take you. As far as hypnosis goes, The Kendal Mintcake is like watching a pocket watch swing back and forth, counting back words while your arms drop and you fall into a deep trance.

All​-​Star Erotic Hypnosis repeatedly pulsates on your eardrums for thirty minutes and through eight tracks. From the space invaders style funky jam titled "The Room is Spinning Around" to the turning alien radio dial montage called "Keep Your Head and Everything Will Be Cool", this composition leaves no room for sonic reprieve. Like listening to live meteor echoes in a cosmic shower, The Kendal Mintcake bridges the two spectrums of rythm and noise. I do not understand all of the porcesses contributing to creating All​-​Star Erotic Hypnosis, but there are times this makes me feel like this is the most insane carnival music ever created.

This is out now from Big Sleep Records in an edition of fifty. Available in the February Bundle or by itself. All of the cassettes are really done up and the music is pushing the thresholds to farther extremes.

Vapor Lanes seeps through all cracks and crevices. Sound taking form of anything needed in order to burrow deep into your consciousness. From ambient field recordings, to industrial meltdown and even mutated pop songs. There is a vintage quality to these recordings, they hiss and crackle making you wonder when and where they are from. With amazing amounts of diversity, this composition has hooks for all listeners.

Many of the tracks from A Thin Film seem to breath at you. The tones and fuzzed out delivery finds all of the space in between the speakers and your ears. Like everything that happens in a dream, so much taking place, details are everywhere, but the focus is on the one event you can comprehend. That is not to say all of the minutiae is irrelevant, actually this is contrary, the specifics are what creates the over all feeling your thoughts maintain their course in. Vapor Lanes steams from a single source and shortly the room is completely hazy. I am not sure who is in there are what is making all of the sounds, just need to take the moment in focusing on nothing at all.

A Thin Film was released by Big Sleep Records in the February 2016 Bundle. There are fifty of these cassettes to go around. This northern New Jersey label is multifarious indeed. Their sounds are going to be difficult to pin down.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Constellation Tatsu's Winter Batch arrived in late February. Amazingly all three of these cassettes are still available. Take a few moments and listen to any of these. They really do a great job a representing how good the music is being released by Oakland's spiritual tape headquarters. With so many different artists and excellent releases arriving systematically in batch after batch from Constellation Tatsu, there is a propensity to get overwhelmed. Start with this one and work your way back! You will be pleased.Links to words and soundsThousand Foot Whale Claw - Cosmic WindsHavenaire - TremoloChihei Hatakeyama - You're still in it

Looking at a dog when their ears go up and they hear a sound capturing
attention. When the noise is recognized or the person entering their space is
accepted, the dog’s ears fall and they are at ease. Listening to Chihei
Hatakeyama, my ears never went up. Just fell into a relaxed state like a dog at ease. My posture and expressions in repose, fitting how
wondrous You're still in it sounds.

Two tracks, one on each side of this close to forty-minute cassette. Chihei
Hatakeyama takes the approach of creating a soothing ambient soundscape ready
to pull your consciousness through and into the astral plane. Drone, yes sure,
you could classify it in that genre, but let us listen closer and describe this
composition with how it plays into your mental being. The tones used are uplifting
and inspiriting. Sparkling light only covered up briefly by passing clouds. The
edges are smoothed over with the gradual movement of sound in a lengthy space.
Time for the mind to submit to the infinite world and forget the small capsule
we so often enclose ourselves in. Divine sounds are all the way through You're
still in it.

Glancing on Constellation Tatsu's bandcamp page, you will see many people
are into this release by Chihei Hatakeyama. I am actually surprised there are
still copies available. Constellation Tatsu offers the best batch deals and
makes all of their releases in quantities with enough to go around. They do
sell out though and You're still in it will be in that state very soon. This is
absolutely pleasing to hear and will be close to your cassette player for a
long time.

John Roger Olsson's project Havenaire burns in scattered images of distant lights seen from mountain heights. Focusing in on any track reveals both the beautiful and the hidden uncertainty sound can create. What goes on there, far off in an unreachable place? A fire burning and people slumbered about, or some unending night ritual summoning the deities from the earth.

Tremolo rolls in at eight tracks and well over thirty five minutes. An ambient collage that stakes the middle ground between tranquilized delicacy and a creeping felling of things lurking beyond the light. In either direction the composition is solidified in being diverse and maintaining a nucleus of coherency. As each door is approached with uncertainty, they all open up to beautiful vistas of sonic wonder. You can get an idea with tracks titled "Monsters", "Holly Hell", "Drone 1", "Small Drone".
There is a fluctuation between the ambient drift away feeling and the introspective looking into the makings of your mind. This is done very well and is so subtle, what could be one feeling for someone would be an altogether different emotion for someone else. Havenaire allows you this freedom and never hijacks your thoughts in one direction.

This cassette is part of the Winter Batch for Constellation Tatsu. Looks like many of these are in the collections of listeners with fine ears. There are more ready to be purchased from the label, and the batch is still available as well. Constellation Tatsu creates a beautiful package with vibrant artwork and music everyone needs to hear.

Cosmic Winds is so aptly titled. These sounds push forth from Thousand Foot Whale Claw and envelope all ears that listen. Melodies and notes shed from this Austin, Texas project moving outward into space. Sometimes in simple and ambient harmony, then exploding with a controlled delivery, circling back trough the empty distances in between.

There is an other worldly feel to Cosmic Winds. Sounds crossing vast expanses then traveling back to the point of origin. Pulsating energy sources hidden deep within some planets core. Creating an aural sound field that travels in all directions. Strings plucked on a high cliff side, whirling noise blowing through the gorge below, then faint tribal drums of people who live at the chasms floor. Thousand Foot Whale Claw takes listeners on a real journey over the course of this cassette. Beautiful sounds that heat up causing your consciousness to lift and soar through the planets atmosphere, on path for solar departure. Heavier gravity tracks pulling you back, making you consider that all treks are filled with introspection and deeper thought. With nine solidly lengthy entries, over right around fifty minutes, Cosmic Winds has ample time to stage multiple departure points. Both gaseous and hazy worlds of sound collide with digital beats derived from futuristic cultures performing their daily tasks. The title track, "Cosmic Winds The Song", is the longest and is stellar at exemplifying all of the aspects of how diverse the entire tape is.

Thousand Foot Whale Claw has teamed up with Constellation Tatsu, a label pulsar emitting a beam of ambient radiation in exemplary forms. Cosmic Winds is part of the Winter Batch and is available by itself or with the entire group of three tapes. Definitely worth the small amount Constellation Tatsu has batches priced at!